🎯 About This Template 🎯

Why does starting your startup journey by finding critical issues matter?

<aside> 💔 35% of startups fail, because of no market need (CBInsights, 2021).

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By focusing on solving significant problems, we increase our chances of building a product or service that addresses genuine customer needs, reducing the risk of failure.

❗ What is important when working on this template❗

⚡ Quickly identify profitable opportunities, saving valuable time and resources. Get it done in one week!

⚠️ Data-Driven Decisions: Qualify the issues with a decision-making framework.

🎯 Be focused and don’t get lost: Use a proven process to guide your thought process.

Ways to Find Critical Issues

Step 1: Exposing Yourself to the Environment

Start by exploring jobs and working experiences that are related to the issues identified. Timebox this task to make sure you really work in a focused manner.

• [ ] Own or relatable job issues: ✔ Reflect on your previous job roles and experiences to identify any recurring problems or challenges faced in those environments. ✔ Connect with former colleagues or industry professionals to gather insights about pain points they encountered and potential opportunities for improvement. ✔ Consider your experiences as a customer and pinpoint any problems you have faced that could lead to viable business opportunities.
• [ ] Conduct high-level market research: ✔ Start a desktop market research within a specific industry segment to understand the pain points and challenges faced by potential customers. ✔ Interview industry leaders, potential customers, and stakeholders to gather insights into their needs and pain points.
• [ ] Improve existing solutions in the market: ✔ Analyze existing products or services in a particular market or industry to identify areas for improvement, unmet needs, or gaps in the existing offerings. ✔ Focus on refining and enhancing existing solutions to provide better value and differentiation to customers.

Step 2: Determine Critical Questions

Create a set of questions that will help you uncover critical issues. Here is a set of questions that you can use as a start:

<aside> 🧐 1. What is the critical challenge faced by your target customers? 2. How frequently do these pain points occur? 3. What impact do these issues have on customers' businesses? 4. Which KPIs are affected? 5. Are there any existing solutions in the market, and how well do they address the problems? 6. Are customers actively looking for a solution to these pain points? 7. How much time or money are customers currently spending to mitigate these challenges? 8. Are there any emerging trends that could exacerbate these pain points? 9. Can these pain points be solved with technology or innovative approaches? 10. Will addressing these pain points lead to a sustainable and scalable business model?

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Step 3: Qualify and Rank Critical Issues

After you’ve gone through these questions for the critical issues you found, it’s time to rank them in a structured manner so that you can make a decision on what critical issues to focus on.

Feel free to use this template to rank the issues identified from 1-5, where 1 has the lowest score and 5 is the highest one.